Day 169

Hello,

Well, we are back at the hotel. Rita was discharged from the hospital yesterday after completing the first phase of course 3. Rita gets pretty heavy doses of chemo for three days each week followed by something they call a rescue drug. That drug helps to flush the chemo out of Rita's system. They test her blood and the level of chemo (MTX) has to be below a certain point before she can be discharged. After that, we go to the clinic as an outpatient each morning until the level gets down to another level. Then, they can start the next phase 72 hours after Rita gets to that level. Rita did develop a fever last night but we didn't have to go back to the hospital because, for now, her numbers are relatively good. They did do a lot of tests today at the clinic and we will find out the results tomorrow when we need to return to the clinic. They have put her on more antibiotics as a precaution.

All in all, its going pretty good. We are keeping our fingers crossed that her fever breaks and that she won't have to be readmitted due to an infection. We have learned to be flexible as far as the schedule of treatments goes as alot of it depends on how Rita handles each treatment. Rita dosen't like the delays because it means that she will be out here a little longer with each delay. I keep telling her that it will all be worth it once she has been curred and all of this is behind her. The process can take a little longer as long as the outcome is positive.

So, we continue to move forward which is a good thing. I'll let you know more when we know more.

Take care, Dave & Rita